NewsOK: Oklahoma City News, Sports, Weather & Entertainment

After three weeks of debris clean-up, the building that once was home to Mutts still retains the mid-century vibe that made it popular with Route 66 travelers, but the heart of the operation has, for now, quit beating.

Originally opened in 2011 by Big Truck Tacos founders Kathryn Mathis, Cally Johnson and Chris Lower, the restaurant at 1400 NW 23 had gone through an ownership change that unsuccessfully sought to turn it into a chain and then was taken over last August by Navy veteran Omar Molina.

In just a few months, Molina had transformed the restaurant into one that specialized in giving a fresh start to wounded people — veterans, young people aging out of foster care, women who escaped the horrors of sex trafficking.

The momentum was on Molina’s side at the start of Memorial Day weekend. Both food trucks were booked for events. A trafficking survivor was well on her way to being promoted to manager of the restaurant. Molina shared social media posts on how employees’ lives were being transformed.

“A lot of blood, sweat and tears, lack of sleep went into managing this 60 to 80 hours a day,” Molina said. “It was a hands-on deal. If I wasn’t running the trucks, I was in here. Off site, I was constantly out getting catering contracts.”

Molina started the morning of May 25 at 6 a.m. planning the day, choosing a word of the day to share with his employees. “Exceptional” was texted to employees, advising them the day was packed with food truck caterings and the restaurant might be tight on staffing.

“Exceptional, when you look it up, means deviating from the norm,” Molina said.

Indeed, Mutts was not a “normal restaurant.” Molina discovered that early on when he saw international Route 66 travelers stopping in front of the restaurant to take their photos with the neon sign.

“Exceptional,” Molina added, meant employees needed to stay on top of the shortage of forks in the restaurant because of an unexplained ongoing loss of utensils. And then there was the weather, which was expected to get stormy later in the day.

As afternoon turned to evening, Molina dismissed the restaurant staff early as reports started coming in that the storms might get severe. He parked the food trucks in the driveway to let customers know the restaurant was closed early.

“Everyone had left, and it took about 15 minutes to get home in Moore,” Molina said. “And I’m in the shower as my wife tells me the sirens were going off. I got out of the shower, turned on the TV, and they quit talking about the storm in Moore. And then they say there was a storm touching down at NW 23 and Classen.”

Molina’s first move was to check on employees, most of whom walked to and from work. One lived a block away from Mutts and reported back that he was safe.

Molina’s first social media posts were prayers for El Reno, where a tornado had left a trail of death, injuries and destruction at a motel and trailer park.

As Molina drove up on the restaurant, he saw the damaged roof. The true extent of the damage wasn’t obvious until he walked inside.

“There was water coming down, the circuit breaker box was sparking, the electronics were all going on and off,” Molina said. “And a piece of ceiling came down on my head as I walked in.”

He first thought the food trucks were unharmed, but when he opened the doors, water came pouring out.

The odds, at first, might seem overwhelming.

But Molina’s story is one of overcoming the odds.

(Story continued below...)

He grew up with his family owning two restaurants, and when he entered the Navy, he ended up running food operations and catering for special events. That 10-year stint ended, he says, with an injury to his back that led to requiring surgery for 10 pins and screws.

“I had to learn to walk again at 23,” Molina said. “I never reached out for help or knew where to get help. I hit rock bottom.”

Molina said he went back to school to get a degree in psychology, not to become a counselor or therapist, but rather to better understand his challenges and those of fellow veterans he was determined to assist.

In the meantime, he started a new career as a trainer for federal investigative employees. He started a non-profit, Absolute Life Transition Assistance, to help veterans who were struggling with alcoholism and drugs and the trauma of having fought for their country.

The last remaining Mutts, the original in Route 66 style building with the pitched roof, was being sold by its second-generation owners. Molina saw an opportunity to expand his mission to help the less fortunate get back on their feet.

He would be not just a boss, but a mentor and counselor.

“If people are broken, you can help bring them back up,” Molina said. “They get to find their purpose, they find who they are and what they are made of, their perseverance and resilience. I’d remind them we’ve had moments where we are down in our lives. We can either be the victim or we can be victorious. These guys get to choose.”

Molina admits quite a few of the original staff left after realizing they also would be called to a higher standard. Tyler Stone was one of the few employees who made the transition from the prior owners to Molina.

“I was teaching lessons for students in Edmond and had not met him yet,” Stone said of his first encounter. “I had accidentally left a door unlocked the night before. He took the time to talk with us, but to also hold us accountable.”

The culture was set to shift. Stone had observed the old owners were often out of town, while Molina was a hands-on owner.

“With the previous owners, if it didn’t work out, they would cut you loose,” Stone said. “With Omar, he tried to coach people. He partnered with shelters and agencies and tried to build up people who were at a low point in their lives. And he would promote them to where they could have some control in their lives that they didn’t have before.”

At the start of Memorial Day weekend, Molina felt good about the restaurant, about his mission, and felt blessed to have a staff with very little “churn” and what he saw as healthy fresh start for most.

A go-fund-me account was set up after the storm. Not for Molina. Not for the restaurant. But for the employees.

Molina is awaiting a decision by his landlord, Charlie Shadid, as to whether the restaurant can be salvaged or must be rebuilt. Molina is committed to reopening either way at 1400 NW 23 — any other place, he believes, won’t have the same Route 66 charm that gave the restaurant its appeal to locals and travelers.

“We put so much time into this for it to fly away in just two or three minutes,” Molina said. "We had some really good momentum. I know whoever ends up with my employees will be getting some really, really good people.”

Mutts Amazing Hot Dogs was opened in 2011 in a mid-20th century restaurant that is representative of how the area developed when it was a part of Route 66. The restaurant is closed following damage by a Memorial Day weekend tornado. [CHRIS LANDSBERGER/THE OKLAHOMAN] Mutts Amazing Hot Dogs owner Omar Molina has spent the past three weeks cleaning up storm damage at the restaurant following a hit by a tornado on Memorial Day weekend. [CHRIS LANDSBERGER/THE OKLAHOMAN]

Steve Lackmeyer

Steve Lackmeyer is a reporter, columnist and author who started his career at The Oklahoman in 1990. Since then, he has won numerous awards for his coverage, which included the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, the city's...
Read more ›